Alex and Jordan are always working on new cocktail ideas and techniques. Pickles, white rum, creme de cocoa, and popsicles are on their list for 2017. Hopefully you’ll hear about them on future cocktail podcast episodes. What are you working on?

Popsicles

We’ll we’re in the dead of winter, Alex is think warm weather thoughts and playing around with boozy popsicle ideas. Recently, he bought some popsicle molds and has been searching the web for recipes. This Basil Mint Citrus Mojito Popsicle recipe caught his attention and will be on his list of summer projects.

Rum

I’ve been trying to broaden my horizons with white rum. It isn’t a liquor I do much with outside of Daiquiris and as an occasional component in Tiki drinks. A couple of new favorites are the Matcha Rum Fizz and El Presidente cocktails.

Match Rum Fizz

2 oz. white rum

½ oz. agave nectar

1 Tbsp. cream of coconut

1 Tsp. matcha powder

2 oz. soda water

Combine ingredients (except soda) in a shaker, add ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice and top with soda water and garnish with a lime wheel.

El Presidente

2 oz. white rum

½ oz. blanc vermouth

1 tsp. curacao

1 tsp. grenadine

2 dashes orange bitters

Combine ingredients in a shaker, add ice, and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Crème de Cocoa

Jordan has been tinkering with homemade Crème de Cocoa after seeing a recipe for in the January/February issue of Imbibe magazine. He hadn’t purchased Crème de Cocoa before, so he went to the liquor store and bought a bottle so he’d know what it was supposed to taste like as a baseline—with the intention of course of making something that hit the same flavors but tastes better. There are recipes online for this that use vodka, but the recipe in Imbibe uses dark rum, and that is his preference.

Brandy Alexander’s here I come.

Aged Eggnog

Jordan was compelled to start researching aged eggnog recipes by a number of articles he read on the subject over the holidays. He is still very much in the research stage of this endeavor, but hopes to have a two or three recipes to age beginning in March or April—to be ready for consumption during the holiday season in a little less than a year.

Technique

Jordan is taking more notes on variation in his techniques and what those changes mean for the cocktails he’s making. It’s not enough to have consistent measurement and ingredients, but the stir, the shake, the strain are all important components to finding your best version of a cocktail and being able to replicate it time and time again.

Jordan’s first liquor of choice was gin, but mostly because a gin and tonic is such an easy drink–both to make and to drink. Although he still regularly enjoys a dry Martini or Negroni, he is now firmly in the brown water camp.
A great deal of his “drinking knowledge” he learns by osmosis from family and friends with actual professional bona fides.